Vinegar gets popular in cocktails

Progressive bartenders, lime shortage drive use of the sour ingredient

Apr 17, 2014 David Flaherty

David Flaherty is the Beer & Spirits Director at Hearth Restaurant and the Terroir wine bars in New York. A freelance beverage writer, David is also a Cicerone Certified Beer Server, a wine geek, a seeker of fine spirits, a father and a fledgling home brewer. He blogs at Grapes and Grains.

Vinegar can be found in nearly every cupboard in every town in every country around the world. For over 10,000 years, humans have found inspiring uses for it – from healing elixirs, to pickling, to cleaning, to dissolving chewing gum, to preserving fruit. Vinegar was most likely created by accident by some sad sap who neglected a cask of wine out behind the local pub, only to find upon his return that it had turned sour (the French word for it is “vinaigre,” which, directly translated, means “sour wine”). And thus, like so many other happy accidents in the beverage world, vinegar was born.

At its root, it’s quite a simple process to make vinegar: The fermentation of natural sugars to alcohol is followed by a secondary fermentation to vinegar. In a world without refrigeration, like that of colonial America, spoilage was a constant enemy. Vinegar created a veritable Fountain of Youth for fruits. Shrubs – beverages made with fruit, sugar and vinegar – and vinegar-fruit syrups came into use.

And today, after nearly being lost to time by the advent of refrigeration and industrially processed foods, shrubs and drinking vinegars are roaring back into fashion for the making of cocktails. Driven by progressive bartenders on the hunt for new flavors to add to their liquid arsenals, as well as the current lime shortage that’s hit the United States, the trend – which arguably began nearly 10 years ago – is now reaching a feverish pitch. Vinegar-based cocktails and nonalcoholic drinks can now be found in mainstream bars and restaurants around the country.

Kelley Slagle, a New York-based mixologist who taught a seminar at Tales of the Cocktail in 2011 called “Vinegar: the Other Acid,” was quickly enamored with the history of vinegar-based drinks.

“Shrubs are a colonial American staple that started as a way to preserve fruit, but were also meant to be used for drinks,” she said, pointing out that Jerry Thomas, who created the first bartenders’ guide with cocktail recipes in 1862, even had a recipe on how to make vinegar shrubs. “Lemon juice is great in drinks, but it’s somewhat neutral in flavor. I love vinegar because you just get a lot more flavor. Instead of adding a one-dimensional character, you’re adding something that’s inherently complex.”

Joe Cleveland, bar manager at Chef Michael Chiarello’s Coqueta in San Francisco, has been working with vinegar in cocktails for nearly 10 years and currently has three drinks with vinegar on his cocktail list. He describes them as being “high in acid with bright flavors that are refreshing palate cleansers” and pair wonderfully with Coqueta’s Spanish-influenced food.

“We serve a lot of tapas, and the vinegar cuts through the oils of both the cheeses and the fatty, grilled meats,” he said.

He develops his drinks with the seasons and looks to both the markets and the chefs for inspiration, but also finds that vinegar shrubs allow him to “bring a bright summer flavor to a winter drink.”

With the current lime shortage hitting the bar and restaurant industry hard, operators are seeing the cost of limes skyrocket, forcing them to nix lime as a garnish and look for alternative sources of acidity in drinks. Paul McGee, a mixologist at Three Dots and a Dash in Chicago, has had to quickly shift his approach to developing his recipes.

“My cost per ounce of lime juice was previously 18 cents; now it’s 62 cents. That’s approaching the cost of some of the spirits you may be using,” he said. “The cost of shrubs varies between 20 to 40 cents per ounce. That’s another reason people are searching for different forms of acidity. You’re going to start seeing the trend of alternatives to lemon and lime juice.”

Are you using vinegar in beverages at your restaurants? Join the conversation in the comments below.

Cleveland of Coqueta is also feeling the cost pinch: “A case of limes went from around $20 when in season, or around $40 in the off season, to nearly $150 a case,” he said. With its acidic, sour tartness, vinegar is the perfect balancer for a cocktail, and has a much more accessible price, he added.

“It’s a much stronger acidity than citrus juice, and you can use much smaller amounts. Depending on the type you’re using, one-quarter ounce of vinegar may equal a full ounce of citrus,” Slagle said. Additionally, vinegar has an indefinite shelf life, so the fear of a high-priced case of limes rotting in your cooler is eliminated.

Vinegar is finding many fans in the bar community, but not all guests may be quite ready for what sounds like an incredibly strange, sour addition to their drinks. Three Dots’ McGee, who oversees both bar and restaurant cocktail programs, said he often approaches restaurant cocktail menus differently.

“I’ll sometimes omit the term ‘vinegar’ or ‘shrub’ as it might confuse people,” he said. “I don’t want to scare them away without them even trying it.”

The best thing about shrubs is they’re incredibly easy to make; you simply need anything that’s fermentable, some sugar and some vinegar. By tweaking the fruits and herbs, the types of sugar, or the different varieties of vinegar, bartenders have endless possibilities. But the base is always important.

“The one thing I would stress for someone new to vinegar is to choose really good vinegar,” Slagle said. “Buy the best you can afford and taste it on its own. … You don’t have to buy the most expensive, but you do need to choose with care.”

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Loved it and continue to love it every time I go in. Not only do they have a fabulous array of tasty olive oils and balsamic vinegars (strawberry balsamic is my current fave), but Mike and Susan are community builders. They are often seen at local community functions, giving out samples, and supporting the events. They are a favorite with the locals on First Friday, always providing food and drink for everyone who pours into the store. That’s a happening event all in itself! I love the way they innovate using their oils and balsamic. They pair them together and make the most wonderful tasty treats for everyone to sample. At one event, they combined vanilla gelato, fresh strawberries, and a slight pour of espresso balsamic…what an amazing treat! You can get gift packs of all sizes and add other gift items available in the store. And you can also have your own private party right there in the store! I highly recommend Susan and Mike’s True Olive Connection. They have an awesome staff too! They are a true gem in the Santa Cruz Community.

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“When you visit the True Olive Connection, you’ll be treated like family and introduced to the wonderful world of extra virgin olive oils and balsamic vinegars. Susan, Mike, and their friendly staff love to share knowledge about these exceptional products that not only enhance your cuisine and are fun to cook with, they are good for you.”

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I am a Chef. Your Traditional Aged Balsamic Vinegar and Extra Virgin Olive Oil was given to me as a gift by my brother who lives near Santa Cruz. Yours is the VERY BEST 18 Yr. Old Balsamic Vinegar and Extra Virgin Olive Oil that I have ever tasted anywhere in the world! Anyone I serve these products to also rave about them, and so I naturally tell them how to order online from you. I just placed an online order for another bottle of each, and you can bet I will always stock and use these products. Thanks for these great products and great tastes!

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I would like to complement your very polite and extremely knowledgeable staff. They spoke of what they personally preferred as well as what tastes of the oils or vinegar’s went well with what types of foods, green salads or fruit salads. They also had lots of pertinent information about where the different oils were were exported, in addition to how the flavors were added after they reached the states. Their professionalism and wealth of information about the wares in the store made our shopping experience just that much more enjoyable. Quite refreshing to say the least!

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I kept thinking that they would cut us off, but they seemed more than happy to let us try every bottle in the store! Whatever you do, try the balsamic vinegar that is aged 18 years…..EPIC.
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WOW! I am not a lover of oils (of any kind)…at least not until now.

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The store is beautiful, so well presented and has so many olive oils and balsamic you can sample. The store is painted in this lovely yellow, they were tasting tables to stand at and the store is lined with the plethora of things to taste. It felt sophisticated without being pretentious. I will definitely check this place out again and get something for the cook in my family!